Some of you may know me as a bagpipe maker for the past 18 years. I’ve read about the whistle tours on the forums here and wanted to know how to get that started. I’m in no hurry but would like to do it this summer if possible. Thanks, Seth
Cocuswood High D w/Delrin head
That is a beautiful instrument! I don’t know the answer to your question though.
Agreed…beautiful looking whistle!
I don’t know if there’s any official C&F tour guidelines or not. But it would seem fairly simple for you to just take names and addresses. Send the whistle around first come first served. You could get fancy and try to group participants by region (so it’s criss-crossing the country or across oceans). Since you’re not selling it, I don’t think the CITES hooligans have any say in you shipping it overseas.
Other than that, just make sure everyone sends it along well packed and with proper insurance.
Good luck with your whistlesmithing!
Oh, and PS: please don’t forget to enter yourself in the Whistle Makers Directory!! (Just reply with your contact info to the sticky thread at the top of the forum!)
Not sure that cocus is one of the restricted rosewoods that fall under the CITES regulations, but it would be worth checking. As for the “not selling” part, I’d be cautious there. The inspectors might not really comprehend the “I’m sending it around to a bunch of people to play with but I’m not selling it—honest” line. There’s been some talk on the flute forum about a tour and a similar question came up—with no answer as yet.
Best wishes.
Steve
I’ve only been part of one tour, but as i recall it was as whistlecollector says… you collect a bunch of names of people who would be interested, and then it sorts itself out from there as far as where to start and stop. I turned out to be the last stop, but it came to me well traveled and got here safe and sound. Probably took longer than anticipated, but you could track it from the feedback on here. I think Ian (it was an Impempe tour) got good feedeback.
I remember another I would have signed up for, but looking at the list i think that one stayed in the UK and Europe; didn’t get to Canada anyway.
You might want to limit your tour to your home country. That way customs wouldn’t be involved. Just ask volunteers to PM or email names and addresses. Give them a set time to keep and play the whistle, then ship it on to the next person. Safely packed and insured, of course. And yes, that is one beautiful whistle!
Casey Burns seems to be the C&F CITES guru. According to his latest information: “I asked about repairs, etc. and sending flutes back and forth. Since these couldn’t be sales, but repairs, theoretically they wouldn’t be considered “trade” - but to be on the safe side permits are recommended.”
An onerous tax indeed!
That’s a beautiful whistle. Good luck in your endeavors. If you ever want to exchange maker’s ideas, send me a message.
I think Cocuswood is not a CITES species so shipping it should be OK,assuming the customs officials are experienced enough to recognize it for what it is, and not a species of prohibited wood. I’m not totally sure about shipping prohibited wooden instruments for repairs.
From what I understand, genuine Cocuswood is quite rare and other species are sometimes sold to unsuspecting instrument makers as Cocus.
The closest wood I’ve seen and used is Mopane which is a terrific woodwind material and not prohibited.
A man after my own heart. Mopane is my favorite tonewood ever.
Yep, it’s almost impossible to get anymore and was all but wiped out by instrument makers in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. I bought it in log form many years back and it was ridiculously expensive. It’s hard to tell it apart from Mopane visually, some pieces, but sounds different. I sent some to a flute maker Patrick Olwell? Ollwell? a few months ago and some to a whistle maker in Australia. I’ll send you a piece if you want to try it. Anytime I do an eBay search for cocuswood I see old flutes or Pakistan made instruments called “Cocus” which is not. I was going to make bagpipes from what I have but I figured I could do more whistles from the stuff and make it go further.
I have one PM and address from a volunteer for the Whistle Tour. I think the advise to keep it in my home country might be a good one, USA, or at least do it here first so it’s not going through customer over and over. MY main concern when I asked about how to go about this was the first volunteer keeping it and disappearing into the night so I figured you guys know everyone on here? I know some of you from my years as a Uilleann Pipemaker. I want to do it soon but I want to do a few more tweaks before I’m ready as this is only Whistle #6. In the meantime I’ll get a list going for the tour.
Seth
Like I said, I’ve only been part of one tour, but followed a number, and i can’t remember an instrument going missing… but sometimes I’m here regularly, and sometimes go missing myself for a while. The one I was on there were no issues with crossing the border… the person before me just popped it in the mail. I was last stop, and as it happened the whistle stayed with me, but with full knowledge of the maker. I send and receive stuff from the US all the time; only had one thing go missing. Anyway, i understand the concern for sure, and it is beautiful whistle, it would be a shame to lose it but i don’t remember that ever happening.
Looks nice! It reminds a lot of the “quieter” version of Gene Milligan’s whistles.
I’ve been in a few tours over the years and would love to test drive this one. I’ll PM you.
BTW-- why not Cocus for the whole whistle? Pieces not big enough probably.
Nope, I have plenty of cocuswood which is why I offered you some if you want to try some. I have it up to 1.75" squares. So far I’m in the Gene Milligan camp, I’ve found that I prefer a delrin head but that may change.
Seth
I’d like to be on the whistle tour, if you’d have me 
I’d suggest not sending out a cocus whistle for the tour, as some people may be allergic, or become allergic for the first time after playing the whistle. Recently made cocus instruments are particularly likely to cause problems, as opposed to something like an old cocus flute, which is far more benign.
I’ve been part of at least one tour and I’d love to participate.
People tend to post their honest reactions on this site- there will inevitably be a “tour thread”- and beware that such tours expose the tour instruments to all sorts of reactions, positive and negative.
I’ve seen makers who welcome all feedback and use negative reviews as an opportunity to adjust their product. I’ve also seen makers who become cranky and defensive at the first hint of non-praise.
What Richard said… thick skin may be useful, though I do think most folks have been honest but not nasty.